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ElliottGolden · 04-11-2014, 21:55

Hello CruisersForum World!

I am sixteen and currently living aboard with my mother and father aboard our Moody 46 Nalani. I have been a lifetime sailor. First held the wheel of my father's Morgan 34 when I was three weeks old. Spent 13 long years of doing small weekend runs in the Morgan when my family and I realized we needed an upgrade. We bought a Moody 46 a year ago, named Nalani and have since been fixing whats been needing to be fixed as well as some good ol'

We devised a plan to live aboard for about fifteen months while sailing South to Key West and then a half a year later up to Nova Scotia. Configured my home schooling and then cast off the lines early July 2014. A few days later at my grandparents house (on the water) Nalani was struck by a lightning bolt. Well we hightailed it to a nearby marina which my father actually had his first job at when he was thirteen.

Just so happens, the marina only had one mechanic in house so we were stuck there all summer until a few weeks ago. We had wonderful neighbors who kept us sane while being kept there forever. It was convenient to a point, though, because our house was only a hour-and-a-half away so we could frequently visit our family including my nephew who is nearly three and is as sharp as a tack.

After finally leaving the marina one and a half weeks ago, we went to our home port which was actually South (the direction we want to be heading about now, Brr!) and stayed there for a few days. Yesterday we left and are currently in Norfolk, Virginia preparing to tackle the beginning stretches of the IntraCoastal Waterways.

Anyway, around to the point I was going to attempt and reach by the end of this post is if there is anyone in our path (Norfolk, Virginia, to Southern Tip of Florida or Key West) who would either like to share ideas, do a boat meet-up, or simply just chat about sailing. I think any of these would be great and if not, thanks for your time!

Have a wonderful day and you're always more than welcome to send me a PM.

~Elliott Golden
Aboard s/v Nalani - Moody 46

Morgan 34:

Moody 46: (Would've been a nice picture except for that piling, I'm going to work on photo-shopping it out)

**GordMay** · 05-11-2014, 03:46

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Elliot.

Moody46CC · 05-11-2014, 04:54

Elliott,

Nice note. My wife and I hosted that Moody party in Annapolis during the boat show at which we met you and your family. You dad left me speechless with his tale of having sailed under the Kent Island Narrows Bridge. Air draft on your Moody (like ours) is 65', and the bridge height is the same.

Anyway, with some luck, the worst of the cold weather is over (for a while), but when you are a day or two out of Charleston, let me know. I'll meet you guys there--assuming you stop there. One exception--we will be out of town 14-16 November.

I will be most interested to see how Nalani fares coming down the ICW as we might do the same in a year or two. Going inside to Beaufort, NC seems more practical at this time of year. The air draft seems to be a limit, but you are testing it, and I'm interested in the results.

I recommend the Mega Dock at the City Marina (Ashley River) or the City Maritime Center (Cooper River), as you can walk to almost every place in downtown Charleston from either marina. There is an anchorage area adjacent to the Megadock/City Marina was well. I have seen mooring balls there, but I know nothing about them. The marina at Patriot's Point on the north side of the Cooper River in Mt. Pleasant is very nice with access to the Yorktown Museum complex of ships but it is isolated from anyplace else. Lots of boats in town now heading south, so if you guys plan to stop here, and it is worth it, I suggest a reservation if you plan on staying at a marina.

Anyway, good luck and good sailing. Call a couple of days out. Your father has the phone/e-mail numbers.

Michael

oldragbaggers · 05-11-2014, 06:24

Welcome to the forum Elliott. I really love hearing from young people who are enjoying the cruising life. You have already passed us, we are in the Baltimore area, but we hope you and your family a great trip down the ICW and I will be looking forward to reading your updates.

cwyckham · 05-11-2014, 10:16

Hi Elliot,

Welcome to Cruiser's Forum! You guys are sure to have a great time. I look forward to hearing more about your adventures.

Are you on the facebook group Kids4Sail? There are a lot of kids and parents on there talking about kids on boats and arranging meet-ups around the world.

Good friends of mine are just behind you. Mark and Caitie are on a Tartan 40 named Tara. Mark occasionally posts on the forum as markperil. You could drop him a pm. They're in the Chesapeake right now and working south. They're good people, you should keep an eye out for them! They don't have kids, but they're only twice as old as you instead of four times as old like many cruisers.

cwyckham · 05-11-2014, 10:18

Oh, you can follow Mark and Caitie's trip on Operation Tropication | to see if you're going to cross paths.

Do you or your family have a blog set up?

shipleft · 05-11-2014, 12:12

Sounds like a great adventure Elliot, keep us posted. I am interested to hear more details of what sort of damage the lightning strike caused. It must have been extensive if it took that much time to fix. There has been some chatter on the forum recently about lightning strikes and their effect on sailboats, can you fill us in on your experience with one?

Mikado · 05-11-2014, 14:08

Hi Elliott,

When you get down to Florida I can highly recommend Westland Marina on the Indian river in Titusville (central Florida). It's a DIY yard with very reasonable dock and haul out rates. Great storm shelter and lots of manatee and dolphins hang out in the marina basin. The yard manager is Rick. He will go out of his way to accommodate you.

Lots of cool stuff to do. Right across from Cape Canaveral so if you are lucky you can watch a rocket launch but a Cape tour should be on your must do list

Feel free to contact me if you decide to stop and hang out for a while I can line you up with some locals friends for flats fishing, gator watching, air boat rides, etc.

The further south you go prices go thru the roof. South Florida is really expensive.

Good luck on your adventure.

Jeff

Tayana42 · 05-11-2014, 15:37

Elliot, nice to meet you on the net. We are in Southern California, on a mooring at Isthmus Cove on Santa Catalina Island or I'd love to meet you and your family. You are a very well spoken young man and you already have an enviable record of sailing experiences. Good sailing on your way south.

By the way, it's in the upper 70's here, water is in the mid 70's too. Only a few other boats in the cove.

Michael Witenstein
S/V B'Shert
Tayana V 42

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

ElliottGolden · 06-11-2014, 16:20

Wow! Lots of replies very quickly, thanks everyone!

I suppose I'll answer everyone's questions/comments in order... Hope you all got a note saying I replied.

GordMay -- Thank you very much!

Michael aboard sister ship Moody 46 -- It's awesome that you found me on here. Every time we go over the bridge heights my father shivers a little. There's also a bridge in Wilkerson which happens to be 64' up... (They really wanted to mess with people who have 65' masts)
We plan to spend about a week or two in Charleston. We will most definitely give you a call, we are in Norfolk now and plan to leave around 7 AM tomorrow. See you soon, hopefully!

oldragbaggers -- Thanks so much! I will definitely keep you all updated.

cwyckham -- I'll keep you updated.
Thanks for the recommendations as well! I just sent a join request to the Facebook page you mentioned. Also, just checked out Mark & Caitie's blog page. Definitely seem like they would be cool to meet up with. My mother has a blog running which is located at: Ruth on the Run Thank you and I hope you enjoy reading my mother's blog!

shipleft -- Well, our lightning experience is a long story. Nalani was anchored out in my grandparent's cove since my grandmother had just hosted a birthday party she throws every year. It's a massive crab feast and everyone has a fantastic time. Also, the World Cup final was that day so I was even more excited (I have German blood so now you should know who I was routing for)
The next day a storm rolled in and began pouring rain as the wind howled. My father and I watched Nalani non-stop because we were worried about the anchor dragging. Soon enough, we started seeing flashes and knew it was lightning but thought nothing of it. About four minutes later, -- CRACK! -- a lightning bolt came right down in the center of the cove and got the mast. We really didn't even think about that happening, it was destined to since even the trees around were shorter than a mast. Nalani is just one big ol' lighting rod. We ran out in the dinghy to check and sure enough when my father flipped on the masthead light, the breaker would pop immediately. Only a few words of sailor's language escaped from his mouth. The next day we sailed it an hour away to a marina which is actually only 8-10 miles from the cove except there's a point you have to go around which doubles-triples the trip.
The surveyor from the insurance company came over the next day and got to work right away.
Since I don't want to explain even more of the story, I'll get to the point now. We were lucky because only the fixtures got fried. Although that's still a lot which includes: Radar, two chartplotters, five small monitors for wind direction and speed etc..., VHF Radios, and a few other things. These are only the things with wires that ran up the mast. What worried us was if the lightning had zapped the wires in which case they would've had to pull the mast (huge labor cost) and rewire everything. So instead of that, they only had to replace the fixtures. Those are the big electronics but there's plenty more that was fried. Masthead and steaming light went bad. Different lights in the cabins got fried, one light would be working like a charm and then one a foot next to it would be burnt out. Our electronic wenches went bad (two out of three), our bow-thruster went bad as well. One of the more serious problems was the engine gauges being blown. The water tank level gauge, fuel gauge, oil pressure gauge, tachometer, and coolant temperature gauge all went bad. Finally, every single battery went bad instantly when the lightning struck. Hope that answers your question... Let me know if you have more specifics!

Jeff -- Thanks so much for all the recommendations! Everything sounds like a lot of fun! I will definitely contact you when we reach your area. Also got my father excited when I mentioned the dolphins (His favorite animal...) Thanks again!

Michael aboard s/v B'Shert -- Nice to meet you as well. Sadly we are only going South to Key West on this trip. Not West, I wish though! Have a nice trip as well!
Also, I've got a friend at our home marina who adores Tayanas. I'd love to see a picture of yours!

Thanks everyone! I will keep everyone updated!